GOP may move 2016 convention up to June

Balloons fall during the Republican National Convention in Tampa on Aug. 30, 2012.(Photo: Charles Dharapak, AP)

BOSTON — Republicans, don't book your 2016 vacation yet: You may be going to a convention in June.

There is "almost unanimity'' among party officials to move the nominating convention to a date earlier in the summer, to shorten the primary period and to allow nominees earlier access to general election funds, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Thursday at a party meeting in Boston.

Last year's GOP convention began Aug. 27, and the Democratic convention began after Labor Day.

The date change will be confirmed "officially'' sometime in the next year, Priebus said, but "I don't get any resistance'' on moving the convention to June or July.

Neither Republicans nor Democrats have held a convention in June since the 1940s. Since the events are designed around television coverage, both parties avoid scheduling their conventions at the same time as the Olympics — in 2016, the Summer Olympic Games will be held in Rio de Janeiro Aug. 5-21.

Candidates cannot spend money raised for the general election until after the conventions, which means that a presumptive nominee who has secured enough delegates to clinch the nomination has to wait until the convention to launch a national campaign. Mitt Romney clinched the 2012 GOP presidential nomination in May but could not access general election funds until after the Republican convention in August.

Party spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski said an earlier convention would be beneficial because research indicates that by Sept. 1, most voters have made up their minds who they will vote for.

For Democrats, discussion of convention timing is premature. "The process for making any sort of decisions hasn't started," said Democratic National Committee spokesman Michael Czin.

Other changes for the GOP nominating process may be in the works. Priebus called the entire Republican presidential primary system a "disaster" that has too many debates and gives Republican candidates too much opportunity to beat each other up.

Last week, Priebus said CNN and NBC would not be able to sponsor primary debates if the networks did not drop plans for programs about possible 2016 nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton. The GOP said the programs would amount to "thinly veiled advertisements'' and thus be unfair, but excluding two networks would help limit the number of debates. Priebus called the glut of primary debates "a traveling circus that has to stop."

The party is also considering creating uniform rules for how states award convention delegates to candidates, but that may be a tough sell.

Texas GOP chair Steve Munisteri said a political party grounded on the principle of states' rights should let states conduct their primaries as they see fit. "We also want to make sure we have a system that will cause candidates and the national party to really pay attention to Texas in the process," he said. Texas held its 2012 Republican primary at the end of May; for 2016, the state moved its primary to March 1 to increase the state's influence. "We are a huge block of delegates, and we are going early," Munisteri said.